Michael Baizerman Author

I have just uploaded the final chapter of the cycle of articles focused on the legend of the Iron Gates. This collection of papers make up Unit IV,  Mapping Marvels and Monsters: In the Shadow of the Iron Gate, of my book "The Enchanting Encounter with the East."    The following extract tells the story of the Khazars, the tribe confederation of the steppe Turks, as it is exposed by written sources and archaeological finds. You can view it on my Academia page  https://www.academia.edu/74005169/The_Turks_in_Jacobs_Tents I have also forwarded this piece to the Discussions. I want to see the comments on the role of the Khazars as a "wall" hampering the expansion of the Arab Caliphate into the Pontic-Caspian steppes and the Byzantine Empire in Crimea. The following story adds to the myth of Gog-Magog that loomed large on Latin Christendom throughout the Late Middle Ages.  The map of the Khazar Khaganate between 650 and 850 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khazars ...

  As I have promised, I returned to the publication of my second project, " The Enchanting Encounter with the East:  Breaking the Ice between the Latin West and the Far." I stopped updating the chapters of my second book in summer 2019 when the Academia site introduced a new outlet, Discussions. This feature exposes articles to a large audience of about 1K people, who might be interested. An additional benefit is a chance to get a response.  I had to take a bite since I felt that I could enhance the readership. I redirected most of my previous articles to Discussions: 14 chapters of my book. Each time I was determined to re-edit the text and offer the readers the most up-to-date version. Then, I uploaded the four chapters of my third project. Now, I returned to complete the circle.  The current paper is titled "Alexander versus Gog-Magog". Here is the abstract:   The paper explores the blending of the Biblical myth of Gog and Magog with the Hellenistic legend of...

My new chapter covers the conflation of the Hebrew myth of Gog-Magog with the Hellenistic legend of the Iron Gate. This is another step in writing a large unit, In the Shade of the Iron Gate. In this particular episode, I explain the motives of those who transformed the unpleasant experience of "barbarian" strikes into the sinister outbreak of monstrous forces on the eve of the Last Battle between the sons of light and the bastards of darkness. Here is an excerpt: "When medieval intellectuals discovered the enormous literary and ideological potential of conflating the Biblical myth of Gog-Magog with the Hellenistic legend of the Iron Gates, the romantic tale turned into a theological saga. The setting matched the everlasting conflict between the Christian realm of goodwill and learning versus the apocalyptic anti-world of evil and ignorance.                 The barrier sustains the line of demarcation bet...

Image: While in transit… Courtesy: http://www.journeymongolia.com/index.php/item?id=13 My new chapter takes a sincere look at the nomads, trying to access their contribution to the human culture as well as to understand why the pastoralist lifestyle was so hard to digest for the settled people. This extract poses an antithesis to the previous one where I picked up a choir of opinions of outsiders about the migrants.  Unit IV is going to be the largest part of my book in terms of the number of chapters. The next extract will focus on the second fusion of the legend where Alexander as the guardian of civilization is opposed the ultimate enemy of Gog-Magog.  Here is the extract from Chapter 4: How come that the settled population still puts the pastoralists to shame for adhering to the “barbarian” lifestyle?   These very people grazed their flocks on natural pasturelands of grassy plains and mountain slopes. Stock-herders turned their yurts into...

Dear readers, Happy New Year! I'm hopeful that the next year will bring you many happy moments that will overshadow all the sad ones. My reading audience is growing; over 1500 people have visited this blog, which delves into my second project. I have launched another blog on the Tumblr https://www.tumblr.com/dashboard/mikebisblog where I will tell a broader history of my writing, starting with my first book, Dawn and Sunset. You may visit my personal page on the Scriggler https://scriggler.com/Profile/michael_baizerman where I have uploaded 23 articles that cover my four projects. As far as my second book, The Enchanting Encounter with the East, I have started working on Unit IV, In the Shadow of the Iron Gate. I would like to explore the image of Alexander's Gate as it took shape in the Latin West. The draft copy of the unit comprises nine chapters; however, I will probably curtail one or two extracts for the sake of the consistency of reading. I will start by ...